MP SPEAKS DAP strongly disagrees with Deputy Finance Minister Ahmad Maslan who blamed “lazy Malaysians” for adding to the country’s unemployment rate by refusing to take up job opportunities causing the influx of foreign migrant workers.

According to the department of statistics, the unemployment rate is at 3.4 percent as at November last year, or 484,600 of the 14.2 million of the country’s total labour force.

 

Referring to the jobless, Ahmad Maslan was reported in the media as saying “They are worse than just lazy. There are around 300,000 of them, who are just sitting and doing nothing”.

This attack on the jobless is not only unfair but incorrect as well. BN leaders should realise that it is not lazy Malaysians who add up to Malaysia’s unemployment rate, but lazy BN policies that are a disincentive to work with low pay and low productivity especially for 3D jobs that are difficult, dirty and dangerous.

 

BN has failed to implement robust and pro-active labour policies to improve pay, productivity and work conditions for workers by importing foreign workers.

How can there be pride in work when it is lowly paid and placed on the same level as unskilled foreign migrant workers?

It is no surprise that a declining economy coupled with price hikes in sugar, petrol, TNB power tariffs and highway tolls have caused both financial hardships to working Malaysians and caused Malaysia’s unemployment to climb up from 2.8 percent in June 2013 to 3.4 percent.

 

This is why even though there are 2.1 million registered foreign workers in Malaysia, the number of illegal immigrants could be double that number.

Foreign remittances by these foreign workers amounted to RM20 billion in 2012.

The full implementation of the minimum wage policy(RM900 in peninsular Malaysia and RM800 in Sabah and Sarawak) in 2014 affecting nearly 1.8 million workers, mostly migrant workers, as compared to 1.5 million workers in 2013 will only cause the foreign remittances to rise to RM30 billon this year.

 

Increased labour costs

The Malaysian Employers Federation estimated that the increased labour cost of foreign workers in small and medium scale Enterprises (SMEs) to result in an increase in total costs for some SMEs by up to 10 percent.

The average increase in productivity by 2-3 percent per year would not be sufficient to compensate for the increase in costs of 10 percent.

The impact from the minimum wage would come from higher overtime charges for foreign employees who work an average of four hours of overtime per day as well as on rest days and public holidays.

 

DAP proposes that the minimum monthly wage be increased to RM 1,100 combined with a grace period to SMEs for five years from extending this to foreign workers.

 

This would help to increase income for 14.2 million Malaysian workers and help economic growth by protecting Malaysian SMEs.

 

This proposed rise in mimimum wage for Malaysian workers will help to offset rising prices and also encourage more Malaysians to seek work. RM1,100 monthly is acceptable to SMEs provided that it does not cover foreign workers.

 

After the five years grace period, SMEs have to pay the same minimum monthly wage to all foreign and local workers.

 

When people are unemployed, the federal government usually gets blamed. Instead it is the BN government blaming the unemployed for not working.

Is being unemployed now considered a wrong by the BN government?

Ahmad Maslan should withdraw and apologise for such insensitive remarks to show his respect for the 484,600 unemployed workers and focus on creating more higher paying jobs.

LIM GUAN ENG is DAP secretary-general and Bagan MP.